[mickrogers]

Hi All, i'm looking to buy a ADSL modem to run over Ethernet for my G4 Powerbook which runs OSX 10.2.2. Do I need to buy a modem specially designed for OS X or can I use any modem that uses the PPPoE Protocoll??

Any help would be great !!!

[CarpetFluff]

I think you can basically use any modem but it's worth doing some research to see what experiences people have had setting up the modem you're looking at with OS X.

A lot of modems have set up software only for Windows, this doesn't mean that they won't work with X but that you might have to set them up manually or look for documentation online.

This is a good site for all kinds of DSL information: adslguide

[Gul Banana]

A standard ethernet/PPPoE modem, the Alcatel Speed Touch (some number) has always worked for me.

[dfiler]

What you need is any ethernet based DSL modem. Do not get a USB based modem no matter how enticing the price may be. The USB modems are slow, buggy, and require special drivers. On the other hand, ethernet modems are fast, reliable, standard, and require absolutely no drivers.

[cms]

dfiler is absolutely correct. I had an Alcatel Speedtouch USB modem (aka The Squashed Green Frog or Stingray) courtesy of my broadband provider which I absolutely HATED. It was unstable and buggy and Alcatel was/is extremely slow in supporting OS X.

So, I made the switch to an Ethernet router and am absolutely delighted with the results. I bought a Nokia IP 55 for about �120 and set it up and had it running in less than five minutes. It causes no trouble whatsoever to me, my system or my internet connection.

Would highly recommend it or something similar for your purposes. Although it costs a bit more than the USB modems available, it is, as I am sure everyone would agree, HEAPS better and well worth the extra money.

Good luck!

[drissa]

I've also had problems with the Speedtouch 330 USB modem. Above, someone has recommended 'dslsource', but although they seemed very friendly and helpful, they assured me that this modem reliably supported OS X. Look around on forums like these and you'll realise this isn't true.

I have the modem running in OS 9, but no hope in X. Dslsource are replacing it with an ethernet model.

Moral? Look to the mac-using community for recommendations, not just the suppliers.

[Jan Van Boghout]

I use the Alcatel Speed Touch Home and I haven't had any problems. I think you're safe when you buy an Ethernet modem, I've heard a lot of complaints about the USB ones.

[winky]

I have an Efficient Networks Speedstream ethernet modem with all manuals and line filters that I will be glad to sell to you for $25 plus shipping from Little Rock. If you are interested, email me at:

[email protected]

[bremner770]

I've got a Alcatel Speedtouch Pro 570 wireless router and have nothing but praise for it. It is a tad pricey but works very well with both my Airport equiped iMac and iBook. When you take in to account the cost of a router and then an Airport base station there isn't much difference in cost.

And nothing beats being able to surf the net with my iBook while sitting on the sofa with my family, rather than being tucked away in a Study/Computer room.

[tooki]

There are several incompatible ADSL standards, so you have to know which kind to get.

Why do you need to buy a modem, anyway? When you get service, they give it to you. (I've never seen a provider in the U.S. refuse you an ethernet modem.)

tooki

[TheMosco]

Originally posted by tooki:
There are several incompatible ADSL standards, so you have to know which kind to get.

Why do you need to buy a modem, anyway? When you get service, they give it to you. (I've never seen a provider in the U.S. refuse you an ethernet modem.)

tooki

He is from italy though, maybe they do things different there.

[Angus_D]

My Thompson SpeedTouch 510 (v4) has been rock solid.

[normyzo]

Westell 566 WebShare. Its a large box, but its got onboard everything (DNS, NAT, DHCP, etc). Great to work with. CenturyTel had this as an option. Its the router, not the bridge one.

Never Never Never get a USB DSL modem if you can help it. You loose the ability to keep the modem on all the time, plus you can't share the connection among a couple computers. Furthermore, you can't easily firewall it unless you've enabled firewall and Internet connection sharing on the computer that has the modem connected. To make it worse, the computer with the modem (if its USB) must be always on to share the connection. USB is just a cheap way to do it, and it sucks.

Dan

[engaged]

I got the Netgear DG814, and am very pleased - it looks cool with a Mac too. Hope you can get it in Italy.

Netgear DG814

My service provider gave as a 'frog' when I signed up but it is very Mac unfriendly, as others have mentioned.

(I will never touch another Alcatel Speedtouch product again.)

[Mike Pither]

Hi Mickrogers,
I am interested in the fact that you are looking to get an adsl connection in Italy for OSX. As far as I know no one seems to support it here yet. They all seem to support windows, linux or OS8/9. This doesn't mean of course that you can't get it to work but you may not get much help from Telecom Italia/infostada/Atlanet etc. I have been thinking of making the jump myself so I would be interested if you manage to get it up and running.

Tooki you are right, all the providers here will lease you a modem, some give you a choice of type but most seem to force you down the alcatel USB which is annoying (though they always give you the option of buying your compatable one)

[malbicho]

Originally posted by Mike Pither:
Hi Mickrogers,

Tooki you are right, all the providers here will lease you a modem, some give you a choice of type but most seem to force you down the alcatel USB which is annoying (though they always give you the option of buying your compatable one)

Well, i'm from italy too and i can just suggest you two things: first of all ask them for an ethernet modem, i just asked them for that kind of modem + pppoe stack configuration and they just did as i asked them. Had no problems at all both under linux and osx.
Clearly, when something is not working as ot should and i call them for assistence the first thing they say is "you are using an unsupported system, check if everything is ok" )

Avoid those usb modems...most of italian providers are not forcing people to usb at the moment.

[Jonesy]

I had loads of trouble with poor drivers for the Alcatel USB modem bundled by British Telecom. A friend of mine who works for BT told me that the Alcatel modems have been trouble for them.

I bought the Netgear DG814 mentioned by engaged and it has been excellent.

I can't tell you how many kernel panics I suffered thanks to Alcatel. Avoid them at all costs.

[Jonesy]

By the way Thomson and Alcatel are the same thing. Crap drivers. Ethernet ADSL routers are the way to go I think.

[Mike Pither]

Hi malbicho, which service provider are you using? Tin.it & infostrada seem to have a choice of modems (both usb and eithernet) but their connection speeds are low unless you pay quite a lot of money (they start at 256k/300k !!). Most of the others I have seen that have services near me (near Torino) offer a USB modem or you buy your own. What did you have to do to configure your computer / modem?

Any info that you can give me would be appreciated (in Italian or English)

ciao

[malbicho]

Originally posted by Mike Pither:
Hi malbicho, which service provider are you using? Tin.it & infostrada seem to have a choice of modems (both usb and eithernet) but their connection speeds are low unless you pay quite a lot of money (they start at 256k/300k !!). Most of the others I have seen that have services near me (near Torino) offer a USB modem or you buy your own. What did you have to do to configure your computer / modem?

Any info that you can give me would be appreciated (in Italian or English)

ciao

Ciao
well, my isp is actually tin.it, i am usinf one of those 640/128 adsl they sell. I bought the modem myself so when i decided to call them for the dsl line i just said them "i have an ethernet modem and i want you to configure pppoe stack".
For mac osx you can configure the connection just using the network panel in the system preferences, you just select pppoe for connection, put your username and password and all goes smoothly.
the modem usually needs no configuration cause the ones sold in italy comes already withe the the default vpi/vci 8/35 configured (at least for alcatel speed touch home).

[Mike Pither]

Thanks for the quick reply malbicho. I think that I shall give it ago as it sound s like it couldn't be easier. By the way where did you pick up your Alcatel speed touch home? From a local shop or via an internet site?

[ja]

Definitely an ethernet router
a good one [avail in the UK at least is from ADSL Nation http://www.adslnation.co.uk/ - �89.99 at the moment - has worked flawlessly for me for a couple of months now]

[malbicho]

Originally posted by Mike Pither:
Thanks for the quick reply malbicho. I think that I shall give it ago as it sound s like it couldn't be easier. By the way where did you pick up your Alcatel speed touch home? From a local shop or via an internet site?

i got it from a local shop, at a really good price too
anyway i think you will easily find it in torino too at a good price
ciau

[Mike Pither]

ok thanks

[dopeyz]

Hi everyone,

I'm having this problem with my ethernet modem ADSL Speedtouch Home, and my iBook. Can't get onto broadband with it on my iBook, but can get online with it on my PC. Tried to set the PPPoE at the network preferences but I think the modem is probably not set up properly on my iBook. Is there anyway I can set it? I tried to reset the modem but it didn't work too. Still says "Could not open communication device".

Please help... Thanks so much in advance.

[aaanorton]

Unplug the power to the modem for a full minute. Then plug it back in and try again.

[dopeyz]

I unplugged the modem from the power source for more than five minutes. Still says "could not open communication device".

[cjwj]

smc 7401bra 2 port router will not work with bt openworld, wires only, dynamic ip address. the frog worked and still works, no problem with drivers, but the router, which should be plug and play, will not receive any info. i can use the web based setup to configure, and have successfully sent e-mails, but cannot get anything to come in. if anyone is having success with a similar setup, i'd love to know how you've done it.


john

[Peter]

Originally posted by cjwj:
...wires only...

What does that mean??

[engaged]

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
What does that mean??

It means that you, the customer, supply all the hardware (modem/router, filters, etc.). All they supply is the ADSL connection up to your phone socket.

[cms]

Originally posted by cjwj:
smc 7401bra 2 port router will not work with bt openworld, wires only, dynamic ip address. the frog worked and still works, no problem with drivers, but the router, which should be plug and play, will not receive any info. i can use the web based setup to configure, and have successfully sent e-mails, but cannot get anything to come in. if anyone is having success with a similar setup, i'd love to know how you've done it.


john

This is what you need to do:

I am not directly familiar with the router model you have but assume it is an ADSL specific combined ethernet modem/router. A standalone router won't work with ADSL; it must be ADSL specific, which needs a built-in modem.

Assuming you've set up your router correctly via your web page interface, you need to now configure your computer properly.

In the network preferences pane, select Ethernet and then enter the following settings:

1) Under the TCP/IP tab, select Configure MANUALLY
2) I presume your router has the IP address of 192.168.1.1; so enter the IP address of your iBook as 192.168.1.3
3) Subnet mask is 255.255.255.0
4) Router is 192.168.1.1
5) DNS Server is 192.168.1.1 (i.e., your router)
6) Leave other options blank

You do not need to configure anything under the other tabs in the network preferences pane, except to check Use Passive FTP mode under the Proxies tab.

The trick is to configure the setup manually. If you did the obvious thing, i.e., Configure using DHCP, chances are your system might produce a self-assigned IP, which is completely random and won't enable you to communicate downstream through your router with the web. So, by setting your router manually as the primary web interface, and your computer as a client of your router, you solve that problem.

After you've done the above, reboot both your router and your iBook and you should be in business.

I had BTOpenworld with a Nokia IP55 four-port ADSL modem/router set up under the above confirguration working flawlessly on my iMac 800 Superdrive. It was also able to serve as an Airport Software Base Station, providing internet access to three other airport-enabled computers in different parts of the house.

Let me know if you encounter any further problems and I'll be happy to help. Good luck!

[Mike Pither]

Why should the ip address always be 192.168.1.1. I vaguely think that mine is 192.168.100.1. I will check it when I get home. What happens if you have a different address. Is it possible or am I mistaken?

Just curious

[Peter]

Originally posted by engaged:
It means that you, the customer, supply all the hardware (modem/router, filters, etc.). All they supply is the ADSL connection up to your phone socket.

thank goodness for that!
I thought it meant, uhm

[cms]

Originally posted by Mike Pither:
Why should the ip address always be 192.168.1.1. I vaguely think that mine is 192.168.100.1. I will check it when I get home. What happens if you have a different address. Is it possible or am I mistaken?

Just curious

No reason that it "should". Just that here in the UK it most often "is". If your router has a different address (192.168.100.1 as you suggest) then you can manually assign your computer's IP as 192.168.100.2/3/4/whatever as long as it is sequential.

[ShotgunEd]

Originally posted by engaged:
I got the Netgear DG814, and am very pleased - it looks cool with a Mac too. Hope you can get it in Italy.

Netgear DG814

My service provider gave as a 'frog' when I signed up but it is very Mac unfriendly, as others have mentioned.

(I will never touch another Alcatel Speedtouch product again.)

Yeah, we got the wireless version of the netgear and its a wee beauty. I have yet to get an airport card but as soon as I do, wireless broadband woohoo!

[cjwj]

to cms - that did the trick! up and running! what a relief. however my other smc POS has now packed up, and they're replacing it with another, new POS...what a world...

jj

[cms]

Originally posted by cjwj:
to cms - that did the trick! up and running! what a relief. however my other smc POS has now packed up, and they're replacing it with another, new POS...what a world...

jj

Glad to hear that one problem at least has been sorted! That's what's so great about these forums. Someone's bound to have had a similar problem to yours, found the fix and now only too happy to share.

Enjoy......

[nelliott]

Originally posted by ShotgunEd:
Yeah, we got the wireless version of the netgear and its a wee beauty. I have yet to get an airport card but as soon as I do, wireless broadband woohoo!

Just ordered one of these myself along with an airport card (which I managed to snag for a bargainous �45 from John Lewis). Getting PIPEX ADSL next week an can't wait!